The Soils of Elgin County - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

tillage practices, particularly no-till practices forfall crops, should be considered for these soils.Wattford Soils (WF)Landform and TopographyWattford soils have developed on blankets ofmedium to coarse textured lacustrine materialswhich frequently have been modified by. wind .They usually occur on upper and crest slopepositions in landscapes which have nearly level orvery gently undulating topography. Occasionallythey occur in landscapes which have very gentlyundulating or hummocky topography. Slopesrange from 2 to 15%, with slopes of 2 to 5 % beingmost common.Soil Moisture CharacteristicsWattford soils are well drained andmoderately permeable. Theyhave moderate waterholding capacities, and droughtiness is usually alimitation . Surface runoff is generally moderate toslow, but can be rapid on steeper slopes where thesoil materials tend to have high very fine sand orsilt contents .General Soil CharacteristicsThe Ap and Bm horizons usually have -veryfine sandy loam, fine sandy loam, or loamy finesand textures. Clay enriched Bt horizons, whichfrequently have fine sandy loam or very finesandy loam texures, commonly occur above thecalcareous Ck horizons . The Ck horizons aremore variable in texture than the upper horizons .Common textures of those horizons are very finesandy loam, fine sandy loam, loamy fine sand,loamy very fine sand, very fine sand, and finesand.Soil reaction ranges from medium acid toneutral in the Ap horizons, to mildly alkaline inthe Ck horizons . Soil classification is typicallyBrunisolic Gray Brown Luvisol .Soil VariabilityWattford soil materials may be uniformthroughout the profile, or they may be variableand consist of layers of medium and coarsetextured materials. Many Wattford soils haveuniform fine sand textures, with 30% or more ofthe sand content being very fine in size .Wattford soils often occur in combination withNormandale (NO) soils .Land Use/Management CommentsWattford soils are rated Class 2M for commonfield crops when topography is not not alimitation . If the surface slopes are not too steep,they are suitable for a wide range of special crops .Their suitability for many special crops increasesif supplemental irrigation is carried out.Suitability ratings for selected special crops aregiven in Tables 6, 7, and 8 .Wattford soils are susceptible to both windand water erosion . Acrop rotation which includesa forage crop, planting cover crops, establishingwindbreaks, and maintaining high crop residuelevels will aid in reducing the risk of erosion .Conservation tillage practices should beconsidered for these soils.Wauseon Soils (WU)Landform and TopographyWauseon soils have developed on 40 to 100cmthick veneers of coarse textured lacustrinematerials which are underlain by fine to very finetextured lacustrine materials . They usually occuron lower slope positions and in depressions inlandscapes which have nearly level or very gentlyundulating topography. Slopes are less than 2% .Soil Moisture CharacteristicsWauseon soils are poorly drained . The uppercoarse textured materials are rapidly permeable,but permeability is slow in the lower fine to veryfine textured materials. The poor drainageconditions associated with these soils if oftencaused by high water table levels which occurwithin 50 cm of the surface for prolonged periodseach year. Wauseon soils have low water holdingcapacities in the upper materials, and high waterholding capacities in the lower materials . Surfacerunoff is slow.General Soil CharacteristicsThe Ap and Bg horizons occur in the uppercoarse textured materials and usually have finesandy loam, sandy loam, or loamy fine sandtextures . Occasionally calcareous Ckg horizons,which frequently have fine sand or loamy finesand textures, also occur in the upper materials.The lower finer textured materials usually consistof calcareous IICkg horizons which have silty clayor silty clay loam textures .Gray gley colours are dominant within theprofile, and prominent dark yellowish brown tolight olive brown mottles are also present. Soil52